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Bilingual Baby

briepileggibriepileggi member
in Babies: 0 - 3 Months

English is my first language, but I am also fluent in Spanish and want to raise my baby speaking both.  The plan was that I would only speak Spanish to our DS, and my DH would speak English to him.  I do speak Spanish to him sometimes and read him books in Spanish, but I have been speaking a lot more English to him.  It just isn't coming as naturally as I thought it would and I'm worried about teaching him poor grammar and not knowing some words, although that has helped me learn more in the process.  It also feels weird to me to speak Spanish to our DS in front of our English-speaking friends and family, even though they know we want to raise him bilingual.  Anyone else having a harder time with this than they thought they would?  Any ideas?  I think it will only get harder, so I'd like to keep trying and get better at just speaking Spanish to him.  Thanks!

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Re: Bilingual Baby

  • JaysonandKristinJaysonandKristin member
    I am fluent in Spanish as well.  DH wants the kids to speak English and Spanish.  He doesn't speak Spanish at all, so the burden of teaching them Spanish falls squarely on my shoulders.  I don't have a problem with that, but it feels really unnatural to speak like that in front of our English-speaking friends.  I guess I could make that my NY Resolution: to not GAF what anyone else thinks and go for it.  It can't hurt anything.  So what if people think we're weird... there are a shitton of other things that people think we're weird about.  What's one more?
    Prudence
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  • calicoastcalicoast member
    I've had trouble teaching our first kiddo Spanish, even though that's my first language. I was in grad school when she was little and our nanny and sitters didn't speak Spanish. And I dropped the ball too. My husband doesn't speak Spanish but knows Italian, and he had a difficult time speaking that consistently as well. I hear ya, i feel weird speaking in front of friends...but maybe I need to get over that....there's a lot of great brain research that supports learning a second language. I guess the dendrites in the brain develop more synapses....So the benefits are there. :)
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  • ASmallWonderASmallWonder member
    I don't think the worry should be if people think you're weird but rather that it borders on rude to make a decision to speak another language in front of people who do not speak it when you don't have to.  It's not like you're conversing with say, your parent who only speaks Spanish, which would be totally acceptable, kwim?  It can come across as if you're trying to talk about people behind their backs, right in front of their face.
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  • calicoastcalicoast member
    Hi, yes that sounds great. My LO#1 is 5yrs old, my LO#2 is 5 weeks old. I used to know how to do the tickers- but the bumps format changed since I was here lasts. :) (I'll figure it out). :) (BTW, What's BMB?)
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  • SwitzerlandSwitzerland member
    I live in a part of Europe where 3 or 4 languages are taught at once to a child... they learn to sort them all out on their own. It's important for one parent to always speak to the kid in a specific language and not switch around. 
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  • JaysonandKristinJaysonandKristin member
    @estreyas -- a check-in would be so great.  I would love to talk about progress with the kids, and any research we may be doing individually about our languages and how-to meet challenges with our kids and language development.
    Prudence
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  • briepileggibriepileggi member
    edited January 2014
    Another way to do this would be that we could start a Facebook group and continue to add people as they post here and are interested in a discussion and support.
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